University Study Notes: Prejudice, Social Interventions, Health, and Legal Psychology
Social Psychology, Prejudice, and Health Interventions
Distinctions Between Key Concepts * Prejudice: Defined as the affective or emotional component of bias directed toward a specific group. * Stereotyping: The cognitive component consisting of generalized beliefs about the characteristics of members of a group. * Discrimination: The behavioral component involving unjustified negative or harmful actions toward members of a group based on their membership in that group.
Impacts of Prejudice on the Victim * Prejudice significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of those targeted. * Stereotype Threat: An individual experiences apprehension that their behavior might confirm a negative cultural stereotype. A specific example provided is the performance of Asians in mathematics; when the stereotype of high performance is made salient, performance may be affected differently than when other identities are highlighted. * The Doll Study: This research aimed to determine if Black and White children possessed equivalent levels of self-esteem. Researchers presented children with dolls of different races. * Findings: Regardless of their own race, children consistently chose White dolls. * Researcher Conclusion: The researchers concluded that Black children suffered from lower self-esteem because they preferred the White dolls over dolls that represented their own race. * Critique of Self-Esteem Findings: Contemporary findings suggest that Black individuals do not actually have lower self-esteem than other groups. Several psychological mechanisms explain this: * In-group Comparison: Individuals tend to compare themselves to members of their own group rather than comparing themselves to the out-group (e.g., Black people compare themselves primarily to other Black people). * Attribution to Prejudice: Negative outcomes are attributed to the prejudice of others rather than personal failure. * Selective Devaluing: Individuals may devalue domains where their group is disadvantaged and place higher value on domains where they excel.
Group Dynamics and Biases * BIRGing (Basking In Reflected Glory): The tendency to associate oneself with successful groups to boost one's own self-esteem. A listed example is the Indiana University (IU) football team; when the team wins, a significantly higher number of people are observed wearing IU gear. * In-group Bias: The tendency to favor members of one's own group. * Out-group Bias: The tendency to view members of the out-group negatively or as being more similar (homogeneous) than they actually are.
Cognitive Models of Stereotyping * Devine (1989) Model: This model distinguishes between automatic and controlled processes in stereotyping. * Automatic Process: Every individual in a society shares the same level of knowledge regarding stereotypes and prejudice because they are raised in the same cultural environment. These stereotypes are stored in memory and triggered automatically. * Controlled Process: While the stereotype is triggered automatically, individuals can be motivated to overcome this bias through conscious effort. * Distinction in Prejudice: Truly prejudiced individuals are those who do not attempt to use controlled processes to overcome the automatically triggered bias.
The Cross-Race Effect * People are generally better at recognizing and recalling the faces of members of their own race (in-group) compared to out-group faces. * Exceptions and Altered Environments: This effect can be mitigated by environment. An example provided is an individual of one race (e.g., a White child) adopted by a family of another race (e.g., an Asian family). Due to the altered social environment, that individual may become better at differentiating Asian faces rather than White faces.
Methods for Reducing Prejudice
The Contact Hypothesis * The idea that social contact between members of different groups will reduce prejudice. * Example: Moving from segregated housing to integrated housing where Black and White individuals live in the same building and are tasked with achieving common goals has been shown to reduce prejudice.
Conditions for Successful Contact * Contact alone is insufficient; specific criteria must be met for it to be effective: * Interdependence: Groups must rely on each other to succeed. * Equal Status: Both groups must have a similar social or functional standing. * Informal Interaction: Contact should occur in a relaxed, non-competitive setting. * Common Goal: Both groups must work toward a shared objective. * Norms Promoting Equality: Social and institutional rules must support equality. * Multiple Contacts: Individuals must have interactions with several members of the out-group to avoid categorizing a single positive interaction as an "exception to the rule."
The Robbers Cave Experiment * Setup: Young boys at a summer camp were split into two separate groups/groups in different camps. Initial treatment focused on building group identity separate from the other. * Conflict: Once the groups were introduced to each other, hostility and poor treatment ensued. * Resolution: The researchers forced the two hostile groups to work together to solve problems. Through interdependence and reliance on one another to achieve common goals, the two groups that previously hated each other eventually formed close friendships.
Social Psychology in Action (SPA-1): Interventions and Traumas
Experimental Method in Interventions * It is crucial to test social interventions using the experimental method to ensure they are actually effective rather than harmful.
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) * Concept: A psychological intervention where participants are encouraged to talk extensively about traumatic experiences shortly after they occur. * Findings: Research indicates that participants who underwent CISD actually displayed greater levels of PTSD compared to those who did not. The therapy did not improve mental health and, in many cases, worsened it.
Social Dilemmas * A situation where an action that is beneficial to an individual will have harmful effects on the entire group if everyone chooses that course of action. * Strategies to Promote "Giving"/Pro-social behavior: * Open Communication: Allowing people to talk about the dilemma. * Hypocrisy Induction: Highlighting the gap between a person's stated values and their behaviors. * Public Consumption: Making an individual's level of contribution or consumption visible to the public. * Factors Preventing Pro-social behavior: Simply agreeing to contribute without actual communication or private accountability often leads to failing to follow through.
Social Psychology in Action (SPA-2): Health and Behavior Change
Framing and Communication * Gains vs. Losses: Communication regarding health and pro-social behavior can be framed in terms of what is gained by acting or what is lost by not acting. For preventable behaviors, emphasizing gains is generally more effective.
Tactics for Changing Pro-social Behavior * Keeping track of personal consumption. * Making the potential losses vivid to the individual. * Introducing an element of competitiveness. * Removing small situational barriers that prevent the behavior.
The Role of Theory * Kurt Lewin famously stated: "Nothing as practical as a good theory."
Social Norms * Injunctive Norm: Perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others (i.e., what you should do, such as "everyone should recycle"). * Descriptive Norm: Perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations, regardless of what is approved (i.e., "I actually recycle sometimes" or "I don't recycle").
Health, Stress, and Control * Resilience: The ability to adapt and recover from stress. * Physiological Impact of Stress: Stress increases levels of cortisol, which in turn decreases the effectiveness of the immune system. * Perceived Control: The belief that one has influence over their environment. This was famously studied in nursing homes by Rodin and Langer. * Given Control: Residents given choices (e.g., plants to care for, movie nights) showed improved well-being and lived longer. * Temporary Control (Control then taken away): This led to the worst health outcomes, even worse than never having control at all. * Lasting Control: Best for health. * No Change in Control: Resulted in no change in health. * Self-efficacy: One's belief in their ability to do what is necessary to achieve a specific goal.
Social Support * While receiving social support is beneficial for health, research suggests that giving social support to others is even more beneficial for the giver's own health.
Expressive Writing * Writing about traumatic or stressful events is an effective method for processing trauma and improving psychological health.
Social Psychology in Action (SPA-3): Law and Testimony
Eyewitness Testimony Stages * Acquisition: The process by which people notice and pay attention to information in their environment. * Storage: The process by which people maintain information that they have acquired in memory. * Retrieval: The process by which people recall information stored in their memories.
Accuracy vs. Certainty * There is often a disconnect between how certain an eyewitness is and how accurate they actually are. * Hair in Hat Experiment: Used to demonstrate the fallibility of identifying suspects based on memory and the impact of superficial changes (like a hat or hair) on accuracy.
Deception and Jury Processing * Lie Detection: Humans are generally poor at successfully judging if others are lying. * Polygraph: The validity and role of polygraph tests remain controversial and complex in legal settings. * Jury Decision Making: Jurors process information based on the emotionality of the evidence (e.g., a child hit by a car). * Order of Presentation: * Story Order: Presenting evidence in the sequence it occurred. * Witness Order: Presenting witnesses in an order intended to have the greatest impact. * Deliberation: The final process where jury members discuss the case to reach a verdict, often influenced by group dynamics.